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December 19, 2006
"Sons of Birchers"--by Guest Blogger Don Wilkey
by Public Theologian
I spoke with church/state monitors one time who told me that they called the Religious Right “sons of birchers”. I thought I might pursue such a claim. Founded in 1958 by Robert Welch, the famous candy maker, the John Birch Society reached its peak in the 1960s with around 60,000 members. Make up of the higher echelon of the organization was that of extremely wealthy families with new money.1 Right wing organizations attracted wealthy men with this new money who held a common fear that their sudden rise to financial power and influence would be taken from them by the left.
The Society, named after fundamentalist missionary to China, John Birch is an extension of the Joseph McCarthy movement. John Birch was a Mercer University graduate who, while in the Baptist school organized campus groups to fight liberalism.2 Missionary Birch had strong ties to fundamentalist preacher, J. Frank Norris of Fort Worth. Norris carried on frequent communications with the missionary to China.3 Fundamentalist Baptist leader, James Hefley, recently published a book about the famous missionary and liberal fighter. McCarthy’s demise after his questionable tactics and rumor spreading caused Americans to look with suspicion on rabid Communist fighters in the nation. The Society thus went underground. Membership is secretive. Their magazines do not carry any JBS logo or name. Founder Welch ran the organization with a strong dictatorial arm. He published the magazine “American Opinion” that would change it’s name to the “New American.” A 1994 version of the magazine claimed that the United Nations was setting up a conspiracy to disarm Americans and overthrow the Constitution. Society magazines were handed out at the 1994 Christian Coalition national meeting I attended. The 2004 version of the periodical claims President Bush was secretly using the war with Iraq to set up a one world order with the U.N. ruling the United States.4
Two national events caused Birchers to lose credibility in the nation. One was the famous ad taken out in the Dallas Morning News that JFK read to his wife the day before his assassination. The ad implied someone needed to take out the president, similar to Jesse Helm’s comment about President Clinton. Kennedy commented to his wife that they were headed into “nut country.”5 Franklin Littell notes that Society members placed posters around Dallas with President Kennedy’s picture mounted in the cross hairs of a rifle scope. The other event was the bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City which drew attention to the group’s strange views. Birchers lost membership and influence whenever they claimed that President Eisenhower was a Communist. Society members even believed the PTA was secretly Communist.6 Billy Hargis, a political bedfellow, taught followers that Mexico was secretly Communist. Welch often promoted the idea in his magazines that foreign aid was a secret Communist plot.7
Alan Westin, in his essay on the John Birch Society, claims the Society “stands between the ‘hate’ right and the semi-respectable right.8 Tim LaHaye, the famous Christian novelist is linked to the group. LaHaye is a prime mover in the Religious Right. LaHaye, a Bob Jones University graduate, ran training seminars for the JBS organization in California.9 Joseph Coors was seen handing out Society literature while he was on the board of regents at the University of Colorado.10 Coors underwrites funding of many right wing groups. R. J. Rushdoony, founder of Christian Reconstruction, was a Society member. Rushdoony backed the organization with his praise. The magazine he founded published an affirming article about the group. The article said, “Such groups deserve our support and prayers.”11 The takeover of the Southern Baptist Convention by fundamentalists had a list of JBS activists. One of them praised South African apartheid and called Martin Luther King a fraud. He was nominated to his trustee position by a Bircher.12 Another member helped defund the religious liberty organization in the Southern Baptist Convention.13 Eagle Forum, a Religious Right organization, has strong ties to the organization through it’s leader, Phyllis Shlafly.14
Russ Bellant documents the JBS connections with the secretive and powerful Council on National Policy.15 Teenage chapters of the Society were scattered around the state of Texas. I was told, by friends, that there was one at Baylor University, and I have picked up copies of their magazines from the shelves of the library at Southwestern Baptist Seminary in Fort Worth. I have found many leaders in fundamentalist churches in Texas are connected. Influential families in First Baptist, Dallas have ties to the group. The National Affairs Briefing, held in Memphis in January 1996, featured a Society booth, according to the Atlanta Constitution. Beverly LaHaye was a featured speaker who hammered home her fear that our nation was being subjected to U.N. supervision.16 This is a common theme in Bircher circles. No doubt Beverly’s husband, Tim, helped to indoctrinate on the subject. In Tim LaHaye’s book, THE BATTLE FOR PUBLIC SCHOOLS, the author has several quotes from John Birch Society leaders and magazine articles.17 The late Ed McAteer, who headed up the first National Affairs Briefing is, according to Americans United, the “Godfather of the Religious Right”. Ed is linked to the Society by board members on his organization.18
The Public TV documentary, “With God on Our Side,” tied in the Republican Party in the sixties with the Society. Senator Mark Hatfield claimed that at least 1/3 of the 1964 delegates at the national GOP meeting were Birchers.19 Baptist political activist pastor, Rick Scarbourough, uses sources from the Society in his book, ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. Scarbourough’s one time across town rival for right wing activity is Second Baptist Church in Houston. Second’s alleged point man for their political activism is Bill Borden . Bill was at the JBS meeting I attended. He introduced himself to me bragging that he helped write the Nehemiah Project for his church. The Nehemiah Project was the political activity the church engaged in that drew a suit by the Federal Election Commission for being involved in partisan politics. Borden is active in the chapter as well as the state GOP.
JBS members are tied to extremist views believing that “one worlders” are actually secretly taking over the country. These mentalities can be traced to a book by Dan Smoot, an early organizer. Smoot linked Republican and Democratic Party platforms in the 1960s with secret Communist ploys. According to Dan, World War II was even staged by these bankers.20 The Houston leader of the Society claimed to me to have written the last paragraph of the GOP state platform a few years back. The 2000 book store for the Society offers literature claiming abortion is used as population control and the government is indoctrinating families. The pamphlets contain commentary from Texas Congressman Ron Paul, a supporter. The work claims the intent is universal control of churches. In 1961, a Major Walker used JBS literature to indoctrinate troops in Europe. The senate floor denounced him for the activity.21 Contemporary mail outs attack the idea of global warming as a fictional invention to gain control of the world.
The John Birch Society is a peculiar blend of patriotism and anti-government sentiment. On the one hand the group portrays the role of super patriot, condemning flag burning and foreign aid.22 On the other hand their paranoid view of a conspiracy and the government has caused critics to claim they are a threat to national security.23 The September 16,1996 issue of the New American said, “Not only was the Gulf War undeclared, unconstitutional and unwarranted, but there are many indications that it was as phonily fomented as it’s predecessors.” The Society believes that the Civil Rights marches in the sixties were set up and controlled by secret One World movements.24 Hargis often went around the country telling folks that integration was a Communist plot.
JBS folks believe “insiders” are actually behind every election, foreign policy decision and declaration of wars in the nation. Members believe America must be warned, for these “insiders” want to make slaves out of American citizens. Society writer, Edward Griffin, does a concise job of summing up their political positions. He writes, “Federal agencies and tax-exempt foundations lavishly fund those organizations which create the appearance of pressure from below and for more government. The beneficiaries of this funding are not grassroots movements; the entire operation is orchestrated from above by the insiders. These are the agents who constitute a massive conspiracy to defraud the American people of their economic security and personal freedom.”25
The Society meeting I attended was filled with active church members. Everyone I met was active in a fundamentalist oriented church. Some of their writing claims that this diabolical world organization created in Europe and now operating through the Council of Foreign Relations has the Christian faith as a primary target. Their end times theories helps give endnotes to second coming authors who are never short of space at Christian bookstores. Tim LaHaye sound familiar here? By lending itself to European banking conspiracies one can see why critics might call them anti-semitic. Robert Welch denied anti-semitic links years ago. The fact of the matter is that groups that monitor right wing extremism see dangerous concepts taught in these circles. Popular author, Eric Hoffer, coined the term, “religiofication”, which he calls the art of turning practical purposes into holy causes.26 Welch definitely turned religiofication into an art form. This places the Birchers as identifying themselves with the Christian faith.
The JBS website advocates the pulling out of the U.N. with a huge emphasis on gun ownership. Lifetime membership is $2,000. Youth summer camps are announced. One is held annually in East Texas. Many Bible verses are quoted as well as the theme that America has divine origins. Understanding their positions helps comprehend the glue that binds the Religious Right together.
A final point needs to be made about the extremist connections to the Society. The racist, William Pierce, who wrote THE TURNER DIARIES, the book Tim McVeigh used as his model for the bombing of the Federal Building was a member.27 A Christian Identity leader in Mississippi is linked to membership.28 Identity members are hardcore racist and anti-semites who do not believe races outside the Anglo-Saxons are human. While awaiting his execution on death row, bomber, Tim McVeigh, chose to read the JBS magazine before his final venture to his reward for being a faithful patriot.30 A revealing testimony to the kind of ideas expressed in these circles.
Endnotes
1. Daniel Bell Ed., THE RADICAL RIGHT, Doubleday, N.Y., N.Y., 1963 pg. 202.
2. John George, NAZIS, COMMUNISTS, KLANSMEN AND OTHERS ON THE
FRINGE, Prometheus Books, Buffalo, N.Y. pg 215
3 William Pitts Ed.., TEXAS BAPTIST HISTORY VOL II, Fort Worth, TX 1987, pg 3
4. THE NEW AMERICAN, February 23, 2004
5. “The Assassination”, TIME, November 1998, pg. 4
6. Bell, pg. 208
7. Ibid. pgs. 204-205
8. Ibid. pgs. 204-208
9. Rob Boston, “Left Behind”, CHURCH AND STATE, February 2002 pg. 8
10. Russ Bellant THE COORS CONNECTION, Southend Press, Boston, 1988 pg. XIV & 31
11. Chad Bull, “Stalwarts of Freedom”, FAITH FOR ALL OF LIFE, Sept/Oct. 2006 pg.10
12. Neil Rodgers, Ed. “Christian Speech”, BAPTIST LAITY JOURNAL, Oct. 1988 pg 4
13. Steve Fox, “Why the Southern Baptist Convention is Upset with Dunn and the BJCPA”, SBC TODAY, January 1989, pg 20
14. Bellant pg 40
15. Ibid. pg 41
16. Mark Wingfield, “Candidates see Blessings of Religious Right”, BAPTIST STANDARD, January 31, 1996 pg 8
17. Tim LaHaye, THE BATTLE FOR PUBLIC SCHOOLS, Fleming Revelle Co.,
Old Tappan, N.J. 1983, pgs 271-275
18. Joseph Conn, “Pyramid Scheme”, CHURCH AND STATE, March 1996, pg 8
19. “With God on Our Side Part I”, KUHTV, Houston, 1996
20. Dan Smoot, THE INVISIBLE GOVERNMENT, Western Islands, Boston, 1962 pgs. 3, 31, 35, 51
21. Michelle Golbert, KINGDOM COMING, Norton, N.Y, 2006 pg 163
22. James Thorton, “Thrashing Our Sacred Symbols”, NEW AMERICAN, December 23, 1996, pg 31
23. Richard Abanes, AMERICAN MILITIAS
24. G. Edward Griffin, ‘Applying the Pincers Strateby”, NEW AMERICAN, September 16, 1996, pg 56
25. Ibid. pg 58
26. Eric Hoffer, THE TRUE BELIEVER, Harper and Row, N.Y., N.Y., 1951 pg 15
27. Morris Dees, GATHERING STORM, Harper, N.Y., N.Y., 1996 pg 138
28. Leonard Zeskind, The Christianity Identity Movement, National Council of Churches
Atlanta, GA 1987
29. Brandon Stickney, ALL-AMERICAN MONSTER, Prometeus Books, Amherst, N.Y.
1996, pg 194
Posted by Public Theologian at December 19, 2006 09:06 PM
Comments
Good job, Don Wilkey, for tracing the tenacles of this most dangerous group/organization which has rebounded from the ashes but tied to the assent of the religious Right. I'd like to forget these nut cases of paranoia, but their venom must be exposed for the uninitiated, else their being duped by the propoganda. There's no denying the rhetoric of "extreme" charismatics & fundamentalists as coming right out of John Birch Society (JBS) tracts. Since most of these historically illiterates are gullible as well as stupid, I have confronted many a one of these with data/information absolutely to the contrary of their spoutings. All fundamentalism is FEAR-based, but when ultraRight politics is fused into a seamless garment with its religiousity, it's duped many a one in the name of THEIR 'truth' which is a distortion if not an outright lie. All the names you list have always made my blood boil, but one that you miss in this new-found resurgence is "christian radio." Talk about playing fast & loose with the truth? You ain't heard nothing to match their half-truths and inuendo with a very thin veneer of religiousity underpinned via scripture quotes, out of context of course. Also, why I am so adamant against DISH & Direct-TV is the variety of unknown [to ordinary religionists] channels they offer or can supply others on request: may I mention just one, SKY ANGEL. What a crock of lies, unfounded syllogistic crapola they propel on the airwaves: a blend of bad "christian" music, pablumized news with their rightist infusions, veiled threats to unbelieving churchgoers who refuse to manifest God's claims [their version,of course], anti-government propoganda, anti-UN everything, etc. But they take themselves quite seriously & damn not only Mainline denominations but the upper tier of evangelicals as ungodly, anti-christs/etc. It is orthodox Birchism, period, and scary stuff in that the uninitiated believe it hook, line & sinker. Dangerous stuff.
As for the fusion of Birchism & the Republican right, it's obvious for one who can pick up the jargon. Ditto for the Christian Coalition & its foibles. If ever a little learning was a dangerous thing, it's here, but they have no trouble at all enlisting the gullible as footsoldiers. Barton's Wallbuilders organization is another Birch-allied group & dominionist to the core.
There's a lot more to this mess, but with this I will stop for now. It's front & center again, and we'd better make sure it's dead by driving that spike through the heart again & again this time around.
Posted by: Arden C. Hander at December 20, 2006 03:29 AM
Wilkey: Found you here and gonna give the direct Link to the Board.
I hope you looked over Goldberg good before you went off here; and sooner or later you will want to catch up to the connection of megatextile man Milliken and his connection to Barry Goldwater.
Then again if Goldwater called Falwell an ass, how do you break it all down?
Posted by: Stephen Fox at December 24, 2006 08:05 PM
Interesting diatribe above. There are too many errors in the posts above to address individually.
Many of the comments above are merely regurgitations of misinformation that has been passed on and on about the John Birch Society as well as Christian Reconstruction. For those of you who may be a bit confused by the information above, as most of it does not align itself with reality, please read my Chalcedon article ( http://www.chalcedon.edu/articles/article.php?ArticleID=2334 )endnoted in the above article and also go to the JBS website ( http://www.jbs.org ) to see what the JBS is all about. Don't worry, the JBS is not involved in a conspiracy to throw you off their real intentions. Feel free to read and agree with their positions on world events and Constitutionally limited government without fear.
I do not work for or represent Chalcedon or the John Birch Society. I simply wrote an article for Faith For All of Life based on my opinion. The JBS is made up of individuals who don't march in lockstep with the leadership or the writers of the New American. They don't always agree and don't all have the same views on politics, culture or life in general. You cannot paint them with one brush.
The JBS does not hide the fact that they publish the New American.
It is true that the JBS does not publish a membership list. Imagine the harassment
members would get from writers like the one above if the JBS, a private organization, chose to publish a list. JBS members are certainly not skulking in the dark, hiding behind sheets as is the suggestion. The reality is quite to the contrary. JBS members are open and out front leading the way in the preservation of our system of government and freedoms.
FACTS: The JBS has as members folks of many different Christian denominations as well as Jews and atheists. Most members of the JBS know little to nothing of Christian Reconstruction. Most Christian Reconstructionists have historically stayed away from the JBS. Tim LaHaye is not aligned with the JBS. Christian Reconstructionists are certainly not aligned with folks like Tim LaHaye who believe the sky is falling and the world is coming to a flaming end. Dominion is not a dirty word. Every man is a dominionist if you understand dominion. The difference is, who's dominion is it going to be? God's or man's? Christian Reconstruction has a far different view of dominion than a humanist or a even a premil dispensationalist Christian.
Christian Reconstructionists are critical of the Religious Right in many areas. They are not the same. The JBS is critical of those who continue to support insider elitist politicians and their sovereignty sapping policies. Many of the leaders of the Religious Right fall into this category. The JBS does not align itself with the Religious Right and the Religious Right certainly would never align itself with the JBS. The JBS is critical of the leadership of both the Republican and Democratic Parties for their continued sell out of our Nation. The JBS does not align itself with any political party or religious faith. Many members in the JBS are at least nominally Christian. The Religious Right aligns itself with the Republican Party. To my knowledge R.J. Rushdooney was never a member of the JBS. He did write articles for Robert Welch at one time.
Yes, members of the JBS do believe in conspiracy. Who doesn't? Conspiracies are an everyday fact of life. Remember Judas, Brutus, Comcast?
Finally, it is quite sad that the author of the first article relied on the intellectually dishonest tactic of associating names with organizations with which they have no valid connection. His article is full of these guilt by association innuendos. The Timothy McVeigh linking was particularly ignorant.
Finally, I'm not asking you to agree with the Birch Society or Chalcedon etc., but please next time you write an article try to do some thorough research so that you can fairly represent the topic you are writing about. Just a cursory reading of my article in Faith For All of Life ( http://www.chalcedon.edu/articles/article.php?ArticleID=2334 ) could have quelled all of your irrational fears of the JBS.
I pray this helps.
Posted by: Chad Bull at March 18, 2007 03:16 AM
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Posted by: kxodijcp at August 18, 2007 07:37 PM
Anyone with half a brain should have see all this coming years ago. The fringe lunatics on the left have been pushing their outrageous agendas since the 60s. Of course there's going to be a reaction from the fringe lunatics on the right. Both groups are idiotic,dangerous wackjobs and I'm sick to death of all of them.
Posted by: Kathy at August 19, 2007 01:19 PM
